Road to Turku: A Stop in Hamburg

Adam Eakins is a midfielder on the U19 German National Team that will compete at the 2012 FIL U19 World Lacrosse Championships in Turku, Finland. Hailing from Hamburg, Adam continues the ongoing Road to Turku blog series detailing the German team's preparations for the international tourney.

On March 16, 2012, the U19 German National Team had its last team tryout, and only 40 players were invited. The event took place in Hamburg, Germany, at the HTHC (Harvestehuder Tennis-und Hockey club) facilities. Even though we did not have all the players on the first day, we still had stuff to do. We did a lot of odd-man situations and a lot of stick work. As the night went on more and more players started to show up. At the end of the night, all but a hand full were there, and we were all tired from the long practice that we just had. When practice ended we all changed and when up to the club house for a few bowls of pasta and then back down to the hall were we all slept as a team.

The next Morning came way too early. We were all sore from last nights practice and we had to do a 5K team run that morning. After the run, we went to the club house and had breakfast as a team. At 9 a.m., the first practice began and all but two were there. During that practice we did a lot more, I mean A LOT more odd-man situations and stick work. After the first practice we had a lunch break. So we went up to the club house and had lasagna. When that was over, we had the second practice. The second practice we did a lot of offense and defense. The offense worked on shooting. They worked on shots on the run, time and room and inside finishes. The defense worked on slides, approach, pokes, lifts and footwork. After the second practice, we had a small break and then we started back up again shortly after. In the last practice for the day, the offense worked on more shooting and the defense worked on their stuff. Right before the practice ended we had to find our best face-off middies. So we just matched everyone to see who was the best. After that we all went up to the club house for dinner.

Last day of the camp, we all got up early again but we only had the team breakfast, no 5k run (thank god :D). We only had two sessions that day. The first practice we just talked about how we want to play offensively and defensively. After the first practice we had lunch. The second session was a scrimmage, but while we played we each had a heart-monitor on us and we also gave blood. We did this because the coaches wanted to make sure that our health was fine.

Before we left to go back home the coaches sat us down to give us our fundraising T-shirt, and they told us who was on the team.

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